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Today we went to visit more amazing artwork in Barcelona and I was in love yet again. Sorry to keep it short but I think the photos speak for itself

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2nd day in Barcelona! We started off the day by going out for some breakfast where I had an omelette and some bread. Then I headed back to the hotel on my own to get ready because my family were going to the stadium. So I headed out again and discovered my favourite ever shop SEPHORA. They had a slide?! Then I had to come back because the stadium was shut so my family were arriving back early. Then we all headed out to see La Sagrada Familia, truly breathtaking I loved every moment of it. Then went to meet friends and eat at a Peruvian restaurant yum.

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First day in Barcelona and I was in love!! Beautiful beautiful city I NEED to live here. We visited las ramblas filled with touristic things then we looked in a few shops such as Stradivarius bershka etc.

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First day in Tenerife

So yesterday at around 12pm we arrived in Tenerife. First of all we had a very rude, unpleasant taxi driver. Then we realised our hotel was in the north of Tenerife meaning it's a little colder up here. Second of all the hotel was disappointing, very disappointing. We're staying the area of Puerto de la Cruz so yesterday we visited the centre which was very lovely, and we had some lovely tapas. Today the sun is not here and I have no idea what we will do today.

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Overall

Okay, so I know I originally planned to post an update daily however my days were extremely busy and it was impossible to find time. I am now in my bed at 4:36pm writing these posts. I am sad, I won’t deny that. I met some lovely people whom I became very close with and none of them live here in Scotland which makes it hard for me. I miss my anglos from the Netherlands a lot! We all cried when I had to say goodbye. However next week I am going to buy a plane ticket to visit them in January! I need to see them. I wanted to go in October for a week but my parents have just booked Barcelona for a week! And I certainly did not want to miss out on a trip to Barcelona! I loved everything about my trip. I don’t want to live in Scotland anymore, I would be much happier in Spain. We will see how things go. I plan to go back to camp next summer but for two weeks rather than one. Next week I am off to Tenerife so expect many more posts.

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IBIZA

So my journey had a layover stop at IBIZA!!! So I decided to have a wee day trip. I got on a bus to San Antoni which was lovely but I couldn’t find much to do, I think at nighttime there would be a lot more to do. It was interesting to see though. Then I found a LIDL store! I was unbelievably happy. I entered the store and bought so many things, it was all so cheap. My favourite thing I bought was this Nestle bar with Dulce de Leche I loved it. Then I returned to the airport and slept a bit. Then hours later boarded my flight with a whole lot of memories.

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The last night and the morning after

The last night we had a disco! Where we were allowed fizzy drinks for the first time and we all got to have a good dance. There was a lot of reggaeton played! The disco lasted until 2am. Then we all went to our rooms. In the morning everyone seemed either drained or a bit upset. A lot of the Spaniards left at 12pm and it was so emotional saying goodbye to people who you had been constantly with for the past 6 days whom you may never see again. I cried A LOT! 

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The following days

We would start off the days with a 9am start for breakfast which consisted of conchas, toast, fruit and lots of hot chocolate for me. Then after breakfast we had to do a warm up. The first warm up was done by the counsellors and it was difficult! One counsellor made us do a mini bootcamp the next made us to yoga and then squats. Another warm up the following day was a type of traditional dancing based in Seville. And then another group was performing the ketchup song, Macarena and the Saturday night song. After this each day, we had to do ‘one to ones’ this consisted of a Spaniard and an Anglo going away and having a chat in English for an hour! It was tiring sometimes and it could sometimes be difficult thinking of something to come up with. I had some great conversations with some people and with others it was slightly more challenging. Then after two sessions of one to ones we had to do a group activity where we were given a task for example: create a product for Dragon’s Den, create a contraption that will protect an egg from falling at a height, make a drama performance for a movie only using animal sounds, create a funfair stall etc. These activities were really fun however often conflicts within the group occurred. Following this we had lunch which was a three course meal. Then we would have free time for 2 hours where we could go to the pool, go to our rooms for a siesta or stay in the lobby and common areas. For most of the days I would chill in the common areas with my Dutch friends and we would play cards, I learned a few games :) Then after this we would have another one to one session and then a ‘fun to fun’ this was basically when we would be put into groups mixed with anglos and spaniards where we could play games, card games, board games whatever we liked. Then we would have a point recount. We were awarded points for good chats in English or being extra polite and from winning team activities. Then the team with the most points got to choose first for group activities. `On the first day I did drama for my group activity where I met one of my closest Spaniards (Laura). The next day I chose to go to the pool, the following day I chose filmmaking. Then on the last day I chose dancing which was so fun! After the group activities we would all come together again for dinner then after we would all meet in the meeting room and perform/show what we had been working on during the day. 

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DAY 1

So I am counting the day of arriving at the camp as day 1. So we had to wait a long time to actually get on the coach so me and my roommate decided to chill by the pool to speed up time. Whilst we were by the pool, I met some lovely people however some were going to different camps. Then all of the groups going to every other camp left and it was just my camp group left. That was when I met a group of people from The Netherlands! Whom I had no idea I would end up spending a lot of time with. Their English was excellent! They all attended a bilingual school. Then we all played cards and ate our lunch then got on our coach to Toledo! I sat on the coach with one of the Dutch people (Fleur) whom I am now great friends with :) and next week we will be exchanging packages with traditional foods from our countries. So the coach journey was around an hour long it wasn’t too bad. We then got off the coach to our lovely hotel and the weather was much hotter than in Madrid! All the anglos had to do a bit of waiting around before the Spaniards came. Once they did we all gathered in the waiting room where we were all reminded of the camp rules and we were matched with our roommates! My roommate was called Patricia who was lovely and spoke perfect English. Then we all had to gather again where we were split into teams, I was in the grey team also with my roommate. I liked our team it was a nice group of people. Then we had to make a group name, poster and performance. We decided on the ‘Happy Greys’ and we performed a snippet of ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams. We had dinner at 9pm which was extremely late compared to the time I usually have dinner at home (6pm). We had to sit anglo-spaniard. Which I think was a great idea to reinforce speaking English at all times as well as getting to know more people. Curfew was at 12am which was a good time. 

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Madrid

Morning from sunny Madrid!! I completely forgot to upload a post last night. Anyway yesterday I arrived safely in Madrid we had to wait a while in the airport for other arrivals to come in. Once everyone had arrived we all got in a coach to our hotel. Hotel Osuna is a fab hotel very close to the airport which I would highly recommend. Then yesterday we all got to know each other and then we went on a city tour. Now I have realised I love the city of Madrid it is so beautiful and I love it. I definitely could live here. Then we had to wait till 9:15 for dinner!! I was so hungry but the ice cream for dessert made me very pleased. Then I got some rest and slept till 9am this morning, I feel very well rested. For breakfast I had churros and about 10 cups of hot chocolate. Now we have to wait till 3 for our bus to Toledo!!

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Big Plans

Also I have been recently talking to my friends about travel once we finish school. My friends who I've known for the longest are wanting to go to Disneyland Paris next easter/may which would be very exciting!! And my school friends want to go to Malia, Greece which would be fab today. On top of all this I may go back to Spain next year and I also want to do a bit of teaching in Peru before I head off to Uni. So hopefully this time next year I'll be flying to 4 different places!! Will be expensive but will definitely be worth it!

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Airport

Hello guys!! I'm currently in the airport. A lot of airlines have introduced a speedy bag drop service but knowing me I managed to need special assistance haha. I made it through security quickly and now I need to wait another 15 minutes to find out which gate my flight is departing from. Then it's a 3/4 hour flight to Madrid! I'll probably be very busy today because as soon as I arrive I will have a Madrid city tour to participate in and then a welcome reception later etc. The next update will probably be tonight en la noche!

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An Update

Long time no see Tumblr! A lot has changed. First of all my avatar is very very outdated but I don't feel as if it is time to change it. In this past year I have been studying very hard in school as this year has been very important as I have been studying for exams to enter university. Fingers crossed my results are what I need! Also in the past year, I have massively improved my Spanish! I took a course at school and now I feel very confident within this language. This also opted me to sign up for a volunteering programme abroad in España! So there's part of my travel news for Summer. Also I went to London in January which I am very upset not to have featured on this blog, I was extremely busy! It was a short trip and I was with family a lot of the time. Amazing city and very busy constantly! Anyway, regarding this summer. As I mentioned before I will be participating in a volunteering programme in Spain (I will reveal name and details after my trip). I am departing next Saturday! I will be going to Madrid for one night and then heading off to a hotel for an English camp. I will be helping the Spaniards my age improve their English! I will hopefully have enough time to share my itinerary on this blog as well as reviews etc. Or I might do this all on the way back as I have to wait 9 hours in an airport in Ibiza! We shall see how it goes. I am extremely excited for next week and I wonder how the volunteering will turn out. We shall see. Also I come back from Spain to Scotland for 10 days then I'm away back to Spain to visit Tenerife with my family. I will be doing daily blogs for this holiday as I know I will have time to spare and it is an island I have never visited before so should be interesting.

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Recommended Hotels in Thailand

U Sukhumvit Bangkok

Rawai Palm Beach Resort

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9 and a Half Hours To Go

Okay so it's around nine and a half hours until our flight to Doha, Qatar. We've had some noodles to eat. I'm already very bored. So this lovely Thai student came over and approached us to fill a survey out, the others said no but I'm bored so said yes and luckily I did. I filled out the parts of the survey and she gave me a lovely elephant keychain as a souvenir! So kind. I will post a photo of it later.

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Phuket Night Market

This was like something out of a movie, busy with lots of loud music. I loved it. So much stuff to buy and bargain on. Would definitely recommend this but do be careful of your belongings!

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Apologies, I completely forgot about posting about the lovely trip we had yesterday to the James Bond Island! So we got on this big boat that took us all the way to 4 different islands. We got complimentary drinks whenever we asked ;) When we arrived at the first island we all got into canoes in 2's with a paddler behind us touring us into a cave. This was amazing. I did not take any photos unfortunately partly because this was just such an amazing experience I wanted to view it in the moment without worrying about getting the "perfect picture". Then we got on the boat again and then onto a long tail boat. This took us to another island with a village on it! We visited the school which was far different to what I'm used to in the UK. The kids there had nap classes, I wish I was apart of that. It was not a very big school it only had about 6 classrooms, at my school we have about 50! Then we got back on the boat and visited the James Bond Island!! It was much smaller than what I expected but none the less amazing! The locals call it a 'nail' island, because the nails you use for construction it's the same shape as this island bigger at the top smaller towards the bottom. Then we headed back to the pier to go to the hotel. The crew here were amazing, so friendly and funny. It was a great atmosphere. Then on the way back to the hotel, we were the last ones left and it was such a long journey so our driver stopped at the Karon Viewpoint for us to look about and get photos. Hence the last scenic photo were the land sticking out are the beaches, Karon, Kata with Patong over the hill.